Early primary returns show ho-hum response

A lack of local political competition appears to be dampening the eagerness of Whitman County voters in the current primary election.

As of Tuesday, one week from the Aug. 17 primary election night count, voters had returned 3,202 of the 19,273 ballots sent out by the county elections office – good for a turnout of 16.6 percent.

Ballots for the election must be postmarked or returned to the auditor’s office by next Tuesday, Aug. 17.

The mark is just under the 21 percent ballot return rate from last year’s special primary, which featured a five-candidate race for 9th District state representative seat

Only Patty Murray’s U.S. Senate seat, Cathy McMorris-Rodgers’ 5th District seat in Congress and the state Supreme Court have drawn more than two candidates listed on the ballot.

Most offices in the courthouse are up for election this year, though only the auditor’s position has drawn more than one candidate with Esther Wilson of Endicott challenging incumbent Eunice Coker.

Both are expected to advance to the general election in November under the state’s “top two” primary format.

Coker said the state auditors’ association has lobbied the legislature to remove offices where no decision will result out of the primary from the ballot.

Such a move would save counties the cost of ink and paper, but more importantly would require less staff time to prepare ballots and program voting machines.

Election staffers must write programs for machines that are used by the disabled, and must spell candidate names phonetically for the voice recognition systems used by the visually impaired.

The association, she said, has also worked to have precinct committee officers of political parties taken off ballots. Such elections, the association has argued, should be handled and paid for by the political parties.